


the new normal

by sassyweethang



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Awkward Dates, Banter, Canon Compliant, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Date Night, Drabble, F/M, Humor, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 19:39:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19730434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sassyweethang/pseuds/sassyweethang
Summary: “This is nice,” Gwen said as she spun her glass round on the flimsy coaster, the froth had long disintegrated leaving just the lukewarm tap beer that’s name had been a play on words that Gwen couldn’t for the life of her remember.“Very,” Rhys added loyally, expelling a deep breath that may have been a sigh.“A lovely normal evening out,” Ianto offered next, completely devoid of any inflection that would in fact suggest it was indeed a ‘lovely evening’.“Very...uh...normal,” Jack grinned...or perhaps grimaced was a better way of describing the closed tight lipped smile he presented the group.





	the new normal

**Author's Note:**

> prompt: For the twood prompts: jackxianto and gwenxrhys being friends outside of the hub? i know its vague but there is Not enough of it in this fandom.

“This is nice,” Gwen said as she spun her glass round on the flimsy coaster, the froth had long disintegrated leaving just the lukewarm tap beer that’s name had been a play on words that Gwen couldn’t for the life of her remember. 

“Very,” Rhys added loyally, expelling a deep breath that may have been a sigh. 

“A lovely normal evening out,” Ianto offered next, completely devoid of any inflection that would in fact suggest it was indeed a ‘lovely evening’. 

“Very...uh...normal,” Jack grinned...or perhaps grimaced was a better way of describing the closed tight lipped smile he presented the group. 

Thick silence descended on the two couples huddled in a cramped booth in a dingy pub on a Friday night. 

Gwen kept trying to spin her glass, despite it catching on a persistent sticky spot on the table. Rhys drank a mouthful of mediocre beer and kept it in his cheeks for a few seconds longer, if only to prolong the inevitable small talk. Ianto stared at his drink, still a little stiff in the booth as he tried desperately to limit the amount of touching his suit had to endure with the minging surroundings and Jack people watched as normal. 

It was all very... _ normal _ . 

Gwen caught Ianto’s eye and something in their shared awkward and bored expression broke them into a fit of giggles that Rhys and Jack joined in on. 

“Oh this is terrible,” Gwen snorted

“The worst,” Ianto chuckled. 

“I don’t even work with you lot and I can tell this boring as hell,” Rhys complained. 

Jack laughed, “We’re spoiled that’s all, too much danger and adrenaline day in day out so when we have a nice quiet day-”

“We don’t know what the bleeding hell to do with it,” Ianto finished hiding his face in his hands, slumping as his tiredly laughed over how his life had devolved from your average nine to five into running for his life on a fairly regular basis. How was that suddenly his new normal? How had a double date on a Friday night at the local become unbearably awkward? 

“Exactly!”

“So what do we do?” Gwen asked. 

“Hunt weevils?” Jack suggested after a moment’s thought. 

“No!” Gwen and Ianto said firmly before Rhys could even start asking questions, like ‘what was a weevil?’ and ‘why on earth would I want to hunt one for fun?’. 

“Wouldn’t want to step on your date night,” Gwen hurriedly covered as she caught Rhys’ worried and questioning look out of the corner of her eye. She quickly hid behind the rim of her glass to avoid the usual argument of ‘unnecessarily endangering herself’ and ‘hiding things from him’. 

“We don’t always hunt weevils for date night,” Jack argued.

“But it is code for date night,” Ianto pointed out and Jack shrugged with a face that said ‘fair point’ as he drank his tap water. 

Rhys tucked away the ‘weevil’ discussion for later on, there was a lot to unpack there and some of it he didn’t want to know, like why it was considered Jack and Ianto’s usual date night. Instead he peered around the tipsy end of week crowds that were slowly gathering in the pub and spotted an old pool table tucked away in the back of the old pub, “‘ello ‘ello, got ourselves a pool table over there, reckon we can get a little tournament up and running, what'd say?”

“What us versus Ianto and Jack?” Gwen asked, amused at the prospect.

“No love, I was thinking more along the lines of Wales versus Yanks,” Rhys suggested cheekily. 

“Hey!” Jack perked up in outrage. 

“I’m in,” Ianto offered with a concealed burp as he’d downed half his beer in one go. 

“Traitor!”

“Me too,” Gwen said. 

“Uh, et tu Gwen?” 

“Alright then, time to put your money where your mouth is Captain,” Rhys laughed as he scooted to the end of the bench to awkwardly lever himself upright. 

“I know how to handle a stick, so don’t come crying to me when the pride of Wales fails,” Jack leered as he launched himself with far more grace than Rhys. 

“Oh ho ho, now you’ve done it, come on then Harkness, you’re going down!” Gwen declared as she hurriedly scooted out of the booth and made a beeline for the pool table. 

“Promises, promises, Mrs Cooper,” Jack barked out a laugh as he followed Gwen. 

“Does he ever stop?” Rhys asked as he finished off his own beer, before grabbing Gwen’s hardly touched pint. 

“Nope, you just get used to it,” Ianto answered, dropping his empty glass onto the table. 

“Think that’s stockholm syndrome mate,” Rhys patted Ianto on the back, pushing him towards their partners already setting up the table as they traded barbs back and forth. 

“Possibly,” Ianto shrugged with a smile. 

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr](http://capt-jackharkness.tumblr.com/) & [Twitter](https://twitter.com/sassyweethang)  
> 


End file.
